


Another turn of the page

by Wapwani



Series: Dragon Queen prompt responses [5]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), dragon queen - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 06:19:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6600100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wapwani/pseuds/Wapwani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina chooses her happy ending</p><p>Part of a series of mini-fics written in response to prompts for Dragon Queen. The prompt for this one was: "Claw marks down the back." Previously posted on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another turn of the page

Regina was growing tired of worrying about happy endings. Everyone had theirs now. Emma Swan had found a way to balance the darkness and the light within her, she had her pirate, she had finally put down the mantle of ‘Saviour’; or at least, she had found someone - Regina - to share the burden of that mantle. Henry had both his mothers back, and his grandparents, and his uncle, and his cousin…the boy who once had no friends and could count the members of his family on one finger now couldn’t walk down the street without running into companions or relatives who loved him. Snow White and her Prince continued to live out their own syrupy version of happily ever after. Robin was happy; he had his son and a new daughter he loved, and he shared the Queen’s bed, if not her home.

Everyone had their happy ending. Even the dragon. She had found her daughter, and between them they had worked out a way to counter the darkness that had been poured into Lily when she was still in her egg. She walked the same line Emma did now - just as capable of dark as of light, and every day was a choice.

Everyone had their happy ending.

Then why did Maleficent look so sad?

Regina would catch that look in her eye sometimes. Say when she was entering the diner on Robin’s arm and Mal was sat at the counter sharing transformation stories with Granny; Mal would turn at the sound of her voice, and her smile would falter and her eyes darken. She’d turn back to her conversation with Granny, but Regina recognised the stiffness in her spine, as though the dragon was steeling herself against a killing blow. She didn’t linger much longer, though she did smile at Regina as she walked out of the door; a smile that did not reach her eyes.

Or Maleficent would come to a town meeting, dedicated to her role of a concerned committed citizen. She’d sit in the front row, and she’d ask questions about zoning laws and flight plans for her and Lily. But when Regina stood to speak, Maleficent would not look her in the eye. And when the meeting was over, even though Regina made sure they served the dragon’s favourite blend, dark and rich and smooth on the tongue, she did not stay for coffee.

Regina knew it would be difficult for Mal, once mistress of the skies, to be tied to this little patch of ground in a realm that was not her home. So she tried to find ways to make Mal feel comfortable in Storybrooke. She authorised the magical recreation of Mal’s castle, even though it looked so incongruous sitting on the wooded hillside overlooking their relatively modern New England town. She put in place new rules on hunting and culling so that Mal and Lily could hunt deer in what Regina still secretly thought of as the Queen’s woods. (Hunting in the Queen’s woods would have been an offense punishable by death in the old days.) She ordered new books and movies for the town Library, so that Mal could catch up on the history and customs of her new world, and she assigned Henry the task of overseeing her education.

But despite all her efforts, Mal persisted in looking and seeming unhappy every time Regina saw her.

One night, when Robin was away camping with his Merry Men and Regina had been overly generous with her glasses of wine, she decided she would beard the dragon in her den as it were, and demand an answer.

She had shown up at Maleficent’s castle doors, much as her younger-self had done once. She was less bold now than she was then, less sure of her own rightness. But the wine lent confidence to her words.

“Everyone has their happy ending, Maleficent! Why do you look so unhappy?”

“Everyone?”

“Yes! I made sure of it!” It seemed that when she had taken up part of the ‘Saviour’ role, she had also taken on a share of the responsibility to fight for everyone’s happiness. And she had tried, she was still trying. Why was Maleficent being so resistant to showing happiness?

“Do you?”

“Do I what?” Regina asked, confused.

“Have your happy ending?”

“What do you…how am I…that’s just…Of course I do. I have Henry. I have my soulmate.”

“Robin Hood.” His name was a snarl.

“Yes. Robin.”

“Your happy ending?”

“Yes.”

“You thought _we_ could be happy together. Once.”

“Oh.”

“And I find myself wondering, if you still think that?”

Regina held up a defensive hand, stumbling backwards. The pixie dust had spoken. She belonged with Robin. Even though the memory of what she had once shared with Maleficent burned in her heart, that was in the past. That was not how her story ended. Her story had been written to end with the redeemed Evil Queen finding happiness with the Prince of Thieves. And she was happy with Robin. She was. She had to be. It was written, so it had to be.

She shook her head, and Maleficent sighed.

“Are you sure, Regina? Because if you are sure, then I am sorry, but I cannot stay here.”

“What?”

“I can’t stay here in this tiny little realm with no escape from watching you be unhappy.”

“I’m _not_ unhappy!”

“So you say.”

“You _can’t_ leave! As soon as you cross the town borders, you’ll crumble to dust again. And we won’t be able to bring you back this time!”

“There is always a way, Regina. I’ve found a spell that can open a portal back to the Enchanted Forest. Lily and I were thinking of making a short visit, so she could see where she was almost born. She’ll return here, of course. This world is more her home than the Forest is. But…there’s nothing to bring _me_ back to Storybooke. Not if Lily can come to me whenever she likes.”

“But…”

“Are you happy, Regina? Say the word, and I will stay.”

All she could see was that damned image from the Book. That picture that had appeared out of nowhere, showing her in Robin’s arms. The end of her story. Her happy ending.

“I’m happy,” she whispered. She barely believed herself, so she said it again, angrily this time. “I am happy, Maleficent. And I am not going to let anything…or anyone…come in the way of my happy ending.”

She turned and stormed from the castle, refusing to see what impact her words had on the dragon.

***

Back in the manor, and with another bottle of wine in front of her, Regina sat alone at her desk. She held the mysterious page, the proof that she was destined to be with Robin. They had come through so much, the two of them. Their story had faced so many challenges, but they had always seemed to find the way that led them to this ending.

She traced her finger along the crumpled, torn edges of the page. It made her think of one of Henry’s old comic books, one that he had read hundreds of times until it was nearly falling apart, and she’d had to patch it together with tape and glue. She felt a genuine smile settle on her face.

They still shared a love of comic books; the stories they told did not seem the slightest bit outlandish or impossible to her, especially not when compared to their own lives. She wondered if there was a realm where the characters of these comic books were a reality, if there was a world where the Fantastic Four battled Dr Doom and Wolverine swore and ripped people to shreds with his claws.

She wasn’t sure she’d ever want to visit. There seemed little room for magic in such a realm. Except, there was the Scarlet Witch, of course. Now there was a woman Regina could identify with; powerful practitioner of her craft, used and lied to from childhood, manipulated by forces beyond her understanding and power to combat. Yet she kept fighting, fighting for what she believed in, for her family. For those she loved. She loved a creature devoid of emotion. An impossible pairing, their love story should never have worked. But it had - and Wanda had warped reality to make what she wanted come true. She’d found her happy ending.

But then another author had come along, and changed it. Had rewritten her story.

That was always happening with comic books. Just when you thought your favorite characters were safe, suddenly there was a retcon, or a re-imagining, or an alternate timeline, and everything you thought you knew was thrown out of the window and you started all over again.

Getting to the last page did not mean you had reached the end.

A love story between a dragon and an evil queen was an impossible thing. Who would ever give it any credit?

But perhaps…perhaps. Perhaps this image of her and Robin was not _the_ end. Perhaps it was just _a_ end. Perhaps there were other pages after this one. Perhaps there was a…pocket world, or an alternate universe, or a ‘What If’ issue, where Regina and Maleficent were written to be together. Or, what if _Robin_ was her ‘What if’ issue. What if Maleficent was her prime-universe storyline? What if she stopped drinking wine and really thought about what she wanted?

What she wanted. Not what some magic page told her she should have.

And what Regina wanted she had already decided on long ago. When she had first gone in search of the powerful dragon who wrote her own destiny.

She wanted Maleficent. She wanted the burning in her belly that she felt when Maleficent touched her. She wanted the heat of Maleficent’s mouth and the warmth of her body. She wanted the strength of Maleficent casting spells besides her. The heady rush of being carried through the air on her back as she rained fire down on their enemies. She wanted Maleficent.

She hoped she was not too late. She did not know how soon Maleficent and Lily had planned on leaving. She stood, focused her power, and teleported herself directly into Maleficent’s castle.

Mal sat where she had left her, brooding into the fire.

Regina strode across the stone floor, grabbed Mal by her arms and hauled her to her feet.

“I was wrong. I lied. I’m not happy. Don’t go.”

She waited just long enough to see the happy smile burst forth before she reached up to pull Maleficent’s mouth to hers.

This was not the time for softness. She had denied herself this fire too long. The time for softness would come later. After she had pushed Mal against the wall and kissed her breathless; after she had raked teeth down her neck and bit into the curve where her throat met her shoulder; after she had torn the shirt from her body and plundered the smooth skin revealed to her; after she had transported them both to Maleficent’s bed so she could lay her dragon down and ravish her.

Maleficent let her. She let her kiss and lick and bite and claw. Let her take and take and take until they were both trembling and sobbing and hoarse.

The time for softness would come later. When Maleficent rose from the bed in search of water, her mouth and body more parched than even dragon fire could leave it. When Regina turned to watch her naked body, still yearning even though she was so sated. She’d see the effects of her passion; Maleficent’s hair a tangled mess, her sweat drenched back, her pale skin marred over and over by the red lines Regina’s clutching fingers had left behind.

She’d draw Mal back to bed with shaking hands, and she’d weep and press gentle kisses to every inch of skin she could reach, and she’d beg forgiveness for making them wait so long.

Maleficent would smile and kiss her back and speak words of love, knowing there was nothing to forgive. And they’d swear, no matter how many pages were written, that this, this would always be the ending they would fight for.


End file.
